Final design for punctuation mark "Ellipsis" informally known as "dot-dot-dot". The design The ellipsis here is meant to show the decay of the earth over the course of time due to humans pillaging it for natural resources. This design meets the brief in full as it only uses the red, black, and beige colors that my initial design did not meet because it included blues and greens.
The Brief:
Your assignment for next week is to create 2 postcards announcing the Punktuation exhibit.
Small text should read in diminishing hierarchy of 3 lines:
Punktuation (most prominent)
An exhibit of art based on punctuation marks (less prominent)
SVA Gallery / 209 East 23rd Street, New York NY 10010 / sva.edu (least prominent)
The size is 5x7 inches, horizontal or vertical
Conceptual solutions are usually best. In terms of overall hierarchy, the mark itself should DOMINATE the layout, and the supporting small text should be very quiet.
Since these are postcards, make sure to work in CMYK. Your color palette is limited to red (C=14 M=94 Y=88 K=4), black (C=75 M=68 Y=67 K=90), and beige (C=13 M=19 Y=19 K=0).
My Approach / Solution:
As a class of 4 we were asked to choose 2 punctuation marks to focus on in meeting the brief without being given any time to think about how we might approach the brief. The first 2 punctuation marks that came to mind were the ampersand (&) and the question mark (?), though I later decided to create a design that used the ellipsis (...). I enjoyed the challenge of searching for visual representations of different punctuation marks that had some conceptual weight to them. My goal was to present solutions that are conceptually engaging with the viewer and asks them to spend some time drawing the connection between the idea and the punctuation mark.
This was my initial design proposal for the punctuation mark "ellipsis" or "dot-dot-dot". This design is meant to be a commentary on humanity's impact on climate change. The initial concept was to have each "dot" represent a different stage in earth's evolution, or in this case, decay. The first dot represents ancient earth "Pangea" before humans existed. The second dot represents earth today. The third dot represents earth millions (or maybe thousands) of years in the future after humans have destroyed it.
Given the global climate during the time that this brief was assigned my first idea for a conceptual approach to the task was perhaps a little obvious. I decided to execute the design anyway because it met the brief I felt, however obviously, addressed the general feeling regarding COVID-19 at the time that still rings true today.
My second chosen punctuation mark was the ampersand (&). When thinking about the punctuation mark's meaning notions of multiplicity and plurality came across. I came upon the idea of having multiple ampersands that were anthropomorphized and were working together to achieve some common goal. Having the ampersands represented in alternating opposite colors of white and black and helping each other back up the cliff most of them had fallen off seemed like an appropriate metaphor for any number of humanity's interpersonal problems. The design approach is meant to be emphatic and playful but at the same time does not present any obvious outcome to the predicament the characters find themselves in.
The Brief:
For next week, each of you will make a 11x17" poster for the Punktuation exhibition using a few of the postcards your fellow students designed. Think of it as a poster layout exercise using their postcards as raw materials.
Same text should appear, but make the title more dominant to reflect the change in format. If you designed a logo for the postcard, you can use that in a larger size, or you can create a new title treatment that reflects the spirit of the poster.
You can isolate pieces of the postcards or you can use them whole. Same color limitations from last time apply, but remember you can always use transparencies and blending modes.
Place working files for all your current or revised postcards in this shared folder. Try and use at least 4 as your raw materials. For a refresher, you can check out this previous student solution here. Place final JPG of your finished poster in your individual Week 7 folder for review next class.
My primary goal in addressing this brief was simply to make some sort of cohesive scene in which my ideas and those of my classmates exist together. My first task, however, was to create title / header that accurately replicates and represents the iconic punk rock collage typefaces that are so emblematic and inseparable from punk rock music itself from a visual-historical perspective. Conceptually tying such versatile ideas and designs together did not seem to be a possibility, so having some visual cohesion and interaction between them seemed to be the best approach. The chaos in the scene and the energy of so many ideas is in itself somewhat punk rock. I feel that I succeeded in rendering a scene that possesses a unified visual perspective and thus succeeded in achieving my goal of creating a cohesive scene.
